Promoting Female Empowerment and Human Development through Microcredit: Field Study with NGOs in Peru

Abstract: This paper discusses the use of microcredit as a poverty alleviation strategy that may simultaneously be used to promote women’s empowerment. The study is based on social anthropological fieldwork conducted in cooperation with microfinance NGOs in marginalized settings in Peru. The data points to the benefits of NGOs management of microcredit programs, in comparison to traditional bank’s microcredit provision, in their personalized interaction with poor customers, giving them support with social issues outside the economic framework. Ultimately, those female microcredit customers that succeed in the program have increased their incomes and improved their individual capabilities or agency, enhancing their own empowerment.